Lately, I have been thinking a lot about… cataclysms, and what would happen in the event of a nuclear war or some other such natural disaster that would wipe out the entirety of humanity. (Depressing!)
Annnndd with the prospect of nuclear war on the horizon, I thought it would be useful to cover a couple herbs and supplements that are radio protective.
The actual syndrome for radiation poisoning is called acute radiation syndrome or acute radiation sickness (ARS). Effects from radiation include: pro-inflammatory cytokines/chemokines, oxidative damage to DNA, inflammation, innate immune response all leading to cell death and damage. [6]
Interestingly, those are all things that happen when you’re exposed to a lot of stress over a long period of time, which just really blows my mind. Your thoughts can literally be toxic?
Of course there are other effects with ARS too. There is malfunction of multiple organ systems leading to organ failure. There is severe damage to the gastrointestinal tract and brain. The bone marrow and white blood cells in the bone marrow are also damaged. You can also bleed to death.
Anyway:
Introduction
Radiation is not just important in the event that there’s a nuclear war– we are actually exposed to radiation all the time. Radiation from microwaves, from cell phones, TVs, wifi routers and 5G towers.
Initially when writing this article, I was wondering why there’s even radioprotective herbs if radiation isn’t naturally occurring. BUT apparently there ARE sources of natural radiation, such as some minerals in the soil/ground. AND there’s also space radiation (?!)(Great! Space Radiation!) and the risk of it is higher the higher in altitude you are.
It’s even found in our body already, in elements such as potassium-40. [2]
The fact that there is a category of radioprotective herbs is pretty awesome. Here are some of those herbs and remedies.
Nascent Iodine / Atomic Iodine (Atomidine)
I should emphasize that the kind of brown iodine you usually apply to skin and wounds is dangerous to take internally, so please don’t do that! LOL.
The iodine I’m talking about here is nascent iodine, or atomic iodine/atomidine, which is a non-toxic version of iodine formulated so that it’s better able to be absorbed by the body.
I took nascent iodine for awhile which REALLY helped with my energy levels, so this is personally one of my favorite remedies. Here is more information on how it’s used in medicine.
I tried digging around for more information about how it pertains to radiation specifically, and found some really conflicting information.
Some official-looking websites dismiss that claim that iodine can only help with internal radiation, not external radiation or nuclear radiation, or that it only protects the thyroid. However, if this were true I HIGHLY DOUBT that doctors in Europe would have been giving out millions of iodine pills to Ukrainian citizens back in 2022 IF IT WEREN’T EFFECTIVE for radiation.
In my opinion, this is more than likely just another case of dismissing anything that seems like alternative medicine. Plus, the thyroid is like a regulator of hormones and all of the glands in your body, so protecting the thyroid seems like a good idea to me, even if that were true.
According to an article on WIRED, the timing is paramount. It needs to be taken either 24 hours before radiation exposure or 4 hours after radiation exposure.
You can also get a tincture of atomidine which was created by Edgar Cayce. Here is a liquid version of what was being given out in Ukraine.
The tincture/liquid version will last a long time because it’s incredibly potent. You only need to take a drop of it for most other uses. (I don’t think I’ve ever finished an entire bottle, tbh!) For radiation poisoning though, you would need to take more.
Iodine Dosing for Radiation
Adults / Children over 12: 2 mL of liquid [3]
Other Uses for Atomidine
- Poison ivy: Dilute a teaspoon of atomidine in a half glass of water and rub on the effected area.
- Detoxification
Liquid Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll (if you remember from science class) is what gives plants their green color and is needed by them to synthesize sunlight into energy that they can use. They make an “extract” of this green liquid (or chlorophyllin, rather) that you can buy at health food stores (or just Amazon.)
It supposed to have a wide range of health benefits:
- Prevention/treatment of cancer
- Boosting energy
- Reducing body odor (real and actual benefit that I tried out XD)
- Acne
- Leukopenia (low white blood cell count) induced by COVID [4]
- Radioprotective
The fact that it’s radioprotective makes sense considering house plants remove radiation from the environment. (So stock up on houseplants!)
Activated Charcoal
Another supplement that has an impressive effect on radiation and its side effects is activated charcoal. Anecdotal evidence suggests that when applied as a poultice, it was able to get rid of chemotherapy-related migraines. [5] (This was, of course, on the Charcoal Times blog so possibly biased.)
A more reputable study conducted in 2021 studied whether or not activated charcoal could be used to treat Acute Radiation Syndrome. The study found that activated charcoal helped with:
- decrease in body weight loss
- protection of bone marrow cells
- reduction of DNA damage and
- reduction of small intestine/spleen damage
- restoring white blood cell count
- mitigation of superoxide ion generation rate in the liver (I haven’t the slightest idea of what that means)[6]
BONUS: It’s also pretty inexpensive. Here is a lb of it for only like $20. (AND it’s unflavored, because it would be weird to take activated charcoal that tastes like Pina colada.)
Conclusion
Well, that is my list of radioprotective herbs and supplements.
Did I miss any? Let me know in the comment section!
Sources
[1] Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia by Anthony Cavender
[2] https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radiation-sources-and-doses
[3] https://www.webmd.com/first-aid/potassium-iodide-radiation
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7994343/
[5] https://charcoaltimes.com/2018/01/07/radiation-chemo/
[6] https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/7/3174
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